My article remembering Dr Jimmy Paterson, of Rangers and Arsenal, is published in The Scotsman today [click on link], a fascinating tale of a fine football career interrupted by the First World War. What it doesn't reveal is the extraordinary coincidence that led me to write it, one which I am sure will resonate with all sports historians. It just happened that my parents, who live in Edinburgh, mentioned that their next door neighbour's father had played football. So I duly went next door and spoke to Jimmy Paterson's daughter Mhairi, now in her eighties, who brought out a file of cuttings and photos. I was also able to find newsreel footage of Paterson playing (and scoring) for Arsenal in 1926 on the British Pathe website [click on link]. She had never seen film of her father playing football before. There was nothing for it but to write his story - especially when it became clear that no-one had done so before!

The line-ups from the programme for Jimmy Paterson's appearance for the Football League against the Scottish League in 1921.

The BBC Radio Scotland genealogy programme Digging Up Your Roots this week will include a feature on the 1872 Scotland international William Muir Mackinnon, the man who performed the first ever overhead kick. I am interviewed about his role in 1870s football, together with his 81-year-old grandson, Bill Westwater of Dunoon, who came with his wife and son to the Scottish Football Museum to make the programme. Mackinnon was the last survivor of the first international, having died in 1942 aged 90. Although his career was spent with Queen's Park, he was also a guest player for Rangers in the club's first ever match in 1872. When I tracked his family tree, I was astonished to find he had a grandson still alive, but he married fairly late, and so did his daughter, hence the living link. You can hear the programme on Monday 29 April at 1.30pm on Radio Scotland, and it will also be available on i-player for a week after then at this link: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01s4dqs

Sad to hear of the death today of Mike Denness, the only Scots-born cricketer to captain England. I met him once at the ceremony when he was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame, a fascinating and friendly man, and I'm glad to say I voted for him as a member of the selection panel. While the obituaries will inevitably focus on his cricket career with Kent and England, and his subsequent role as a referee, it should not be forgotten that he learned the game in Scotland and was capped by his native country 19 times between 1959 and 1967. He was a 15-year-old pupil at Ayr Academy when he made his debut for Ayr Cricket Club in 1956, and is pictured here (front row, first left) with the Ayr team that was Western Union champions in 1960. He was only 18 when he made his debut for Scotland in 1959, playing against India, Ireland, Warwickshire and MCC that summer, and his final appearance was at Edgbaston against Warwickshire in August 1967 - two years before his England test debut. Others will no doubt be much better placed than me to write about his life and achievements, but I hope his contribution to Scottish sport is not forgotten.